adult children who have different political/spriritual views from us

I remember reading years ago Helen Nearing’s book about her life with her husband. In it she described Scott’s relationship with his son. As some of you know, Scott was a pioneer back-to-the-lander as well as a socialist. His son worked on Wall Street and didn’t share his perspective. In the book, Helen shared a letter Scott wrote him in which he carefully outlined the reasons for his disapproval of his son’s politics and the reasons why he wanted to withdraw contact from him .

Well, we all make mistakes and this was a major whopper! What we parents of adult children have to remember: it is not their job to make us proud; it is our job to take pride in our children. There is no other way we can stay close, enough of a motive; and no other way we can continue to have some influence on them.